Quote Sheet: FC Dallas vs. Fire

“With games running out, we knew that this was a game that we needed to get three points. It’s a good team with a lot of quality players, so we knew we had to play a very good game, stay compact, and defend well without the ball because of the team speed that they have.

At this point in the season, you want to be playing for something and we have to focus on looking at it one game at a time, but this was for sure a massive win against a very good team.”

On the goals the Fire gave up…

“I have to look again but there was two bad goals that went in. The first goal looked like offside to me and the second, Gonzalo Segares got the ball and the referee calls a PK. On the other end, Juan [Luis Anangono] beats the goalkeeper and goes down and the referee doesn’t call anything. The referees need to be consistent… Very consistent in games like this.”

On going into a defensive mode in the second half…

“Patrick Nyarko had an issue with the hamstring and we were forced to take Dilly Duka out. Patrick would have been our first sub had Dilly not gotten hurt. We were thinking 65 minutes would be good to bring Patrick out. We didn’t want to push him any more than that. Then Dilly gets hurt and now we end up losing Patrick for a longer amount of time… at a crucial time.

As the game went, it really dictated the subs that we had to make. We needed to strengthen the middle. The changes that FC Dallas made strengthened the middle and we needed to match that. We put guys in that were a little more defensive-minded and they were able to finish the game off.”

On the importance of Mike Magee to the Chicago Fire this season…

“His numbers are fantastic. We were having problems scoring when we got him and now we’re playing for something. It’s a really good time to be playing well.”

Chicago Fire forward Mike Magee

On his goal…

“I wasn’t even surprised. I didn’t see anything at all. I tried making a run to get in-behind and Alex hit a shot that was coming right at my face. I tried to protect myself and not get hit in the face. I felt it hit me, I want to say in the ribcage and when I looked up it was heading into the goal. I didn’t have any time to be surprised. It was the strangest goal I’ve scored.”

On Juan Luis Anangono’s goal…

“Juan is great in the air. He gets up well and his timing is great. We actually have begun to start looking for him more on set pieces. He did all he needed to do, which was just glance it towards goal. It was perfect. More importantly, he had a fabulous game tonight.”

On Jalil Anibaba’s goal…

“Not a knock on Jalil, but I don’t think anyone in Chicago was expecting him to do that tonight. He is a great defender, a great kid. If we have to have a guy in that spot… If we have a guy trying to bend one in to the far upper-90 it’s normally not going to be him. But thankfully, tonight it was him. I am glad it was because I don’t think anyone else would have been able to do it.”

On making a run towards playoffs…

“For the last two months, we’ve been hovering right around that red line. The big issue for us was getting over that hump. Now, we’ve put ourselves into a position with two matches left in the season that we control our own destiny. If anyone else outside of this locker room would have said that this is where were going to be at this point in the season, I think everyone would have called BS on them. We have always believed in ourselves. We’ve had some lows and some great performances and tonight was obviously one of the great ones.”

Chicago Fire defender Jalil Anibaba

On his goal…

“At the time, I didn’t know how important it was going to be but I tried to get into a good spot and I tried to put the ball to the far post. I put it in a good spot and it went in.”

Talk about how the defense was able to tighten up in the final 10 minutes of the match to get the win…

“If you go back and watch the video, the way we closed out the game was not just a defensive effort. We had a lot of help from players higher up the field that killed off minutes and took a lot of time off the clock. That was what we needed. It is our job as a defensive unit to keep balls out of the back of the net but I thought the attackers did a very good job to help us finish off the game.